It's Like the Walls Are Caving In
by toothlessturtle21
Summary: Finding out your teammate is a robot isn't a picture perfect moment. When your teammate looks at you with desperation in their eyes, you can't do anything but offer encouragement. But when you're walking back home from a battle, all bets are off.


Zane couldn't breathe.

He literally couldn't breathe. Lack of a respiratory system and no real need for oxygen made breathing rather pointless.

The Ice Ninja clutched his blueprints to his chest, walking in silence as the team of four made their way back home. His friends walked close together, but gave the newly-discovered android some distance, mostly because they were just as lost as him. Sure, they had offered encouragements back in the treehouse, but with the desperate expression on Zane's face for any sort of reassurement, there was no way that they could have done otherwise.

They watched in silence as Zane seemed to be fighting a war in his head, eyes tracking every small bump in the ground with intensity as he thought. He held out his arm without looking up, and the Falcon joined him on the newly created perch. The Ice Ninja brought his arm back to his side, the bird nesting on his shoulder instead.

"Hey, so now that you're a robot, do you still need to eat and whatever?" Kai asked, curiosity too much for him.

Zane shrugged, clearly not in the mood to discuss, but Kai just hummed in disappointment. Naturally, he decided to try again.

"Do you even need air? Or water?"

"Kai..." Jay warned, casting a nervous glance towards the Ice Ninja, who seemed to be growing more tense.

"Have you looked like a teenager forever? I mean how old are you?" Cole joined in, and Kai seemed to have a new realization.

"Probably pretty old, since his dad died a long-"

_"Shut up!"_

The team's eyes snapped towards the Nindroid, whose teeth were grit into a grimace. He slowly deflated, face softening and eyes growing remorseful as the Falcon chirped quietly in his ear, turning his gaze down once again to the snow at his feet. Kai and Cole were taken aback, and they exchanged nervous glances.

"Sorry man, didn't mean to set you off," Cole attempted to get through to the Ice Ninja, who continued to watch the frost that crunched beneath his feet. This was a whole new level of despondence.

Jay's eyes flit between the android to his right and the two confused teenagers to his left, unsure how to defuse the situation as Kai and Cole talked among themselves, discussing their theories of whether or not their teammate needed to eat. Jay felt sick.

Jay slowly shuffled over to walk next to the Ice Ninja, blue eyes overcast with clouds.

"Hey," He said softly, a slightly nod of the head indicating he was being listened to. "You alright?"

Zane looked over, locked eyes, and blinked once. Jay smiled grimly, nodding in understanding. Nothing was said between them for the rest of the walk home, despite the conversation next to them.

* * *

When they reached their home base, Zane immediately locked himself in the bathroom after letting his feathered friend go into the afternoon air.

"So," Kai rocked back and forth on his heels, rubbing an arm that was bruised from the earlier assault. "Should we talk while we patch ourselves up a bit?"

"Talk about what exactly?" Jay bit back, nursing a similar wound. "That we just found out that our amnesiac teammate is actually a Nindroid whose inventor literally shut off his memory? Because I don't know what else there is to discuss."

"Well, I don't know," Cole exhaled heavily through his nose. "This is new territory for everyone. He's the only robot I've ever seen that can pass as a human."

"If locking yourself in the bathroom to have an emotional breakdown isn't human, than I guess I don't know what is," Jay snarked before heading towards the aforementioned room. "I'm going to make sure he isn't hurting himself in there. Feel free to put some boo-boo cream on your little scrapes, or whatever."

Jay was a lot more gentle when he reached the room he was looking for. He knocked lightly before opening the door, and glanced around the bathroom before settling on the floor. Zane was curled up in between the toilet and the sink, blueprints scattered at his feet.

"Hey buddy," He said softy, his footsteps light as he padded across the laminate. "You alright?"

"What do I do?" The Ice Ninja asked softly, not moving from his ball. "I- They..."

Zane grappled for anything to describe what the hell was cycling through his head, but oddly enough, he was speechless.

"You didn't do anything. They're being jerks for no reason," The Lightning Ninja sat down in front of Zane, moving the blueprints out of the way.

"How do I fix this?" The newly discovered android's voice was little more than a whisper, fingers shaking. "I don't want to tear this team, apart, Jay. I'll leave, I'll pretend like nothing ever happened, I'll do _anything_, I just don't want to be the outcast-"

Although Zane cut himself off with a hiccup, the word _again _hung heavily in the air, unspoken but true all the same.

"Nobody is going to make you leave, Zane. You are a part of this team, and nobody is going to make you hide a part of yourself like this," Jay said sternly, his tone leaving no room for argument. "If they don't believe that, then I'll have Sensei kick them out, not you."

Zane hummed in recognition, although he didn't look quite convinced.

"I don't think they really meant it, though," The Lightning Ninja murmured much more softly, face quirking. "I think they're just a little scared."

The android's face fell, and Jay was quick to backtrack.

"What I meant was that we're only human," He explained, internally cringing at his choice of phrase, but Zane seemed unbothered by it. "There's only so many new things we can process, and everyone has a natural sense of curiosity. This may sound morbid to you, but it seems to me like they chose to look past you as a person and see you as a robot instead. Then they started forming questions, and here we are."

The fact that _here_ meant the floor of a mildly filthy bathroom was mutually understood, with blue paper and messy cursive sprawled out on the floor like new tiles.

"Thank you, Jay," Zane nodded slowly and meticulously, as if it was taking longer to compute than usual. "For shedding a little light on the situation, I mean. This is new territory for me as well."

"Yeah, I get it. I mean, I don't, but whatever," The Lightning Ninja laughed slightly hysterically, the events of the day hitting him hard as he was perched on the cold floor. "You wanna head back to my room? I can patch you up there."

"I didn't get hurt during the course of the battle," The android admitted, feeling guilty as he eyed the bruises forming on Jay's arms.

"Well, I need to bandage up anyway, so I'm tugging you along regardless."

"Okay" Zane squeaked out and followed Jay out of the bathroom, sitting perched up on his bed, melancholy written into the lines of his face as he watched Jay remove his shirt to inspect his wounds.

"Alrighty, let's see here," Jay hummed to himself in a pleasant pitch, hoping to soothe the poor Ice Ninja's nerves. "Can you hand me the wipes to your left?"

Zane complied, and Jay continued to patch himself up in this fashion, Zane handing him items as needed. When Jay was mended and clothed again, Zane departed in silence, retiring to his room after collecting his blueprints from the ground.

Curled up on his bed, it felt like hours passed. The Falcon stayed perched on his headboard, watching over the android with unblinking eyes.

After a long time, there was a little knock on the door.

"Hey Zane, you awake?"

Zane responded in the affirmative, and the door opened. The Ice Ninja sat up, rubbing his eyes. To his surprise, Kai and Cole were holding a plate, some roasted chicken and various sides surrounding the main course.

"We may have overheard your conversation in the bathroom," Cole admitted bashfully, extending the ceramic out towards the android. "So, Kai and I made some food, and I didn't even burn it. Consider this an olive branch of sorts. We're sorry, but we understand if you just want us to go away right now."

"No, no, you're fine," Zane smiled, accepting the food. "Thank you."

"Yeah, no problem," Kai rocked back and forth on his heels. "And, uh, if you don't mind, Jay has informed us that you maybe wouldn't mind answering questions in a more respectful way, so maybe we could ask you some sometime?"

"Sure," Zane sliced part of the chicken with his fork. "It would be my pleasure to sate your curiosity as long as you still see me as an equal."

"Wait, you thought we saw you as less than us? No way, man," Cole contended, eyebrows furrowed. "You're Zane. Yeah, you're a robot, but you're Zane. And we wouldn't have you any other way."

"Thank you," Zane smiled softly, and waited until they left the room to allow his eyes to grow misty, savoring the peace offering while encased in his own little bubble, aware that him leaving his room would be the start of a new era for the team.


End file.
